Day 9 Transcendental Dependent Origination - Last Day Advice

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:12]So we're going to go through something known as what we call the 12 links of transcendental dependent origination.

[00:00:22]Obviously it says 11 links but uh uh there is a 12th link we'll see just before faith but uh we will start as we do with dependent origination in the reverse order right we're starting with the effect we're starting with what is the end result and how do we get to that end result now all through this retreat as you've been practicing you have been invariably following this uh this path let's say this uh as it says progress to nibbana in one form or the other.

[00:01:06]So the first start on the right side.

[00:01:09]What does it say over there? It says there asakaya nana the destruction of the taints. This is what I call the viruses.

[00:01:20]These are the seeds of sensual craving of uh existential craving and of ignorance. The lack of mindfulness.

[00:01:31]You see, when we talk about awakening or full awakening, that equals the total eradication and destruction of these viruses, the complete destruction of them, never to be arisen again. You know, the the seeds are roasted so that they don't sprout again.

[00:01:56]So whenever you see in the sutras it will say that through non-clinging his mind was liberated and he knew right that the mind was liberated. And so when it says that he knew the mind was liberated it's referring to this.

[00:02:17]It's referring to the knowledge of liberation. It's not only about being liberated. It's about the nana. That's nana is the the knowledge, the wisdom, the understanding, the recollection that mind has been liberated. So often times you will see this refrain in the sutras where somebody who becomes fully liberated, it says birth is destroyed.

[00:02:39]There is no more coming to being means the birth of karma, the birth of action is completely destroyed and no new birth will take place. there will be no no new existence for that uh process.

[00:02:59]What is not mentioned here but it is mentioned in the suta where we take this from uh it is the uh samuta nikaya 12.23 23 it's called the upanisa suta and in there it says there is the knowledge and vision or sorry the knowledge of the destruction of the taints. So there is the knowledge of liberation and what is required for that knowledge to happen. What is it that he knows and sees? Right? It says that for one who knows and sees this is apparent.

[00:03:42]And what is it that he knows and sees?

[00:03:45]He sees this. Such is form. Such its origin. Such its passing away. Such is feeling.

[00:03:56]Such is its origin. Such is its passing away. Such is perception.

[00:04:03]Such is its origin. Such is its passing away. Such is formation or form. Such are formations.

[00:04:13]Such are their origin and such are their passing away.

[00:04:18]Such is consciousness, such is its origin and such is its passing away. In other words, you have the total understanding of the five aggregates.

[00:04:32]The first sermon of the Buddha is the understanding of the middle way.

[00:04:39]The opening up of the path, the rediscovery of the path has been has been shown to the world that this is the path, the eight-fold path. The second discourse of the Buddha where the five uh fellow uh travelers with him who were in the asetic path now becoming his students now becoming his disciples listened intently to his discourse in the second discourse and there it is said he says or goes through the emptiness of the five aggregates.

[00:05:13]He sees and shows to them that form whether internal this body or external any other form whether subtle or gross.

[00:05:26]So subtle here could mean fire you know because form is made up of fire as well.

[00:05:32]Different aspects of the elements make up form.

[00:05:37]subtle or gross, near or far, existing in the past, here or in the future. All form is conditioned. And by being conditioned, it is subject to change.

[00:05:54]Therefore, it's impermanent. And that which is subject to change can lead to suffering.

[00:06:04]And that which is suffering is not me, not mine, not myself.

[00:06:10]So when we say such is form, such its origin, such it's passing away, we're looking into the impermanence of form. What is the origin of form?

[00:06:23]How does form arise?

[00:06:26]Form arises due to nutr.

[00:06:31]What kind of nutrint?

[00:06:33]the the gathering of the four elements through food and water and nutrition.

[00:06:41]This form is built up. This wooden table is made up of a particular type of wood that comes from a particular type of tree.

[00:06:52]Right? This paper, same thing.

[00:06:55]Everything is made up of something else.

[00:06:58]Everything is interdependent with something else. Such is with form and such is its passing away.

[00:07:09]One day this table will decay. One day this paper will decay. One day this body will decay. In fact, this body, all the bodies that we have here are all decaying. As soon as you're born, you have the expiration date.

[00:07:26]Your body is heading towards its own demise.

[00:07:32]And it is the dissolution of the aggregates, the dissolution of the elements that leads to its passing away.

[00:07:40]What happens when you see form as impermanent?

[00:07:44]You stop relying on it as the sense of self.

[00:07:49]You stop seeing it as me, mine or myself.

[00:07:53]Such is feeling. Such its origin. Such its passing away.

[00:07:59]What is feeling? Experience.

[00:08:03]Internal experience, external experience, subtle experience, gross experience, near, far, in the future, from the past, in the present. All experience, all vana, all feeling is dependently arisen, is conditioned.

[00:08:24]What is the origin of feeling?

[00:08:27]contact.

[00:08:28]You cannot experience anything unless the six sense bases are active and they are making contact with something that gives the arising or gives rise I should say to the underlying consciousness.

[00:08:43]Remember I gave you the example all your eyes are on me. So you are seeing you're experiencing there is the vana of seeing me. Soon as I tell you to pay attention to the statue of the Buddha now your eyes are there. There is the statue of the Buddha as form making contact with your eyes and the underlying eye consciousness arising dependent upon the two. And therefore when that happens now the feeling of seeing me has disappeared.

[00:09:13]Now the feeling of seeing the Buddha has appeared.

[00:09:18]So contact is the origin of feeling and when you lose contact that is the dissolution of that feeling.

[00:09:32]Such is perception such is its origin.

[00:09:36]Such it's passing away.

[00:09:39]What is perception?

[00:09:43]Perception is the recognition of an experience. It's the labeling. Here is a piece of paper. It is white. Here is this table. It's made up of a certain wood. Here is this shirt. It's the color red.

[00:10:01]Here are these flowers. Here is this teacup. Right? knowing what it is in terms of shape and form, sound or taste, what quality it is. The labeling of what that is is perception rooted in memory.

[00:10:21]That which you feel and experience is what you perceive.

[00:10:26]But now the question is what is the origin of perception?

[00:10:33]Contact is the origin of perception.

[00:10:37]Why? Because as soon as you have put you have made contact with the statue of the Buddha, now you're perceiving that.

[00:10:46]Now you're recognizing here is a statue of the Buddha instead of perceiving this person here.

[00:10:58]What is its fading away? When you have left the contact, when the contact has ceased, that is the sensation of perception.

[00:11:10]Such of formations, such are their origin, such are their passing away.

[00:11:17]What are formations? Remember, formations are three-fold.

[00:11:22]There's the mental, verbal, and physical. How do they arise? When do they arise?

[00:11:29]They arise due to contact.

[00:11:35]When you make contact with your eyes, make contact with the statue of the Buddha. Now, in order for you to feel and perceive the statue of the Buddha, you need mental formations to arise so that you can feel and perceive.

[00:11:51]Contact is the key here. It gives rise to feeling, perception, and formations.

[00:11:58]When contact ceases, these three cease.

[00:12:03]Such is awareness or consciousness. Such is its origin. Such is its passing away.

[00:12:13]What is the origin of consciousness?

[00:12:16]If you look into the links of dependent origination, formations are the origin, the condition, the cause for consciousness to arise.

[00:12:29]Because once there is an intention to see something, once you have made the conscious choice to look at the statue of the Buddha, now there is the underlying sense-based consciousness for it to arise when your attention has been directed that way. The only way your attention is directed that way is because intention uh changes the direction of the attention.

[00:12:54]The spotlight operator is the intention.

[00:12:58]The spotlight is the attention. The intention moves the attention. And intentions are synonymous with formations. If you want to know the quality of your formations, look at the quality of your intentions because they move interdependently.

[00:13:23]Right? So only when the intention changes, consciousness changes. Only when the formations change, consciousness changes.

[00:13:33]So such as it's passing away consciousness passes away when the formations cease.

[00:13:41]So for one who knows and sees what is the destruction of the viruses present.

[00:13:46]But one who knows and sees this doesn't mean intellectually doesn't mean that you've read about it. Doesn't mean you've contemplated doesn't mean you've thought about it means that you have had a deep experience of really seeing this through and fully understanding that there is no permanent self that resides in relation to any of these five aggregates.

[00:14:15]This is what the Buddha told those first five disciples. And upon realizing this, all five of them turned became aruts.

[00:14:24]Their minds were liberated.

[00:14:29]So what is that liberation that leads to the knowledge of these five aggregates and their impermanence, suffering and emptiness of self? What is that liberation? What do we mean by that liberation? You see the word liberation when we translate it or freedom or awakening whatever you want to call it, it comes from the word vimi. You'll see it says here on the top it says vimi.

[00:14:59]What do we mean by vimi?

[00:15:04]So this vimuti in Pali comes from vimmi in Sanskrit and mti comes from the word mosha and moka comes from the word much.

[00:15:17]Much means it's like the apple on the apple tree. It's ripe enough that it it's much it drops.

[00:15:26]It's ripe. So it drops from the rest of the tree.

[00:15:31]So your mind drops from samsara.

[00:15:39]Your mind is liberated, achieves complete sessation of perception and feeling. Hence dellayering all of the experiences through the process of going through the janna. So you touch the nibbana element, the unconditioned element.

[00:16:00]It's the only thing that is permanent from the ontological perspective of Buddha Dharma.

[00:16:09]From the siological perspective of Buddha Dharma that theadhatu the unconditioned element is the only thing that is permanent and eternally happy or the cause of eternal happiness.

[00:16:27]And when the mind touches that, what happens? It is liberated in that moment.

[00:16:34]The mind touches that and makes contact with that. That contact that arises from there gives rise to something known as vignyanam anidasum.

[00:16:45]That is the nonmanifestative or nonreflective awareness. It's the first awareness that arises after you come out of cessation that touches nibbana.

[00:17:01]And that contact is known to be of three things.

[00:17:06]Signless, undirected, and empty.

[00:17:13]What do we mean by signless? Because there's no object you can take with nibbana. Nibbana cannot be held on to.

[00:17:20]Nibbana is not a thing nor is it not a nothing but that place that realm that unfabricated unconditioned uncreated unmade unbecoming that process of nibbana that is constantly unfabricated no concepts are present in that space the total nonconceptual ual proliferation that space that has no object and so the contact is objectless.

[00:18:00]That's why it's called signless.

[00:18:03]It's undirected because any intentions that go here or there ultimately lead to suffering.

[00:18:13]All intentions that you have ultimately are impermanent. Therefore, they will lead to suffering. And so it's undirected and it's empty empty of any self because then is not is not something where you can say that is myself.

[00:18:32]It is just an impersonal element.

[00:18:36]And so the contact that arises there's no self that's directing the process.

[00:18:42]There's no controller here. It's an impersonal process. And so that contact that arises is impersonal.

[00:18:50]It's signless, undirected and impersonal.

[00:18:53]The feeling that you get because of that contact is the joy and the relief that happens that just comes out gushing out.

[00:19:04]That feeling of relief that wow, what just happened?

[00:19:15]But in that space when the mind touched nibbana for those few micro moments the mind was utterly and completely free.

[00:19:26]That was the freedom. That was the vimi.

[00:19:29]However, because the experience, the after effect of experiencing nana is so glorious, so amazing, what does the mind want to do?

[00:19:42]I want that more.

[00:19:45]I don't want to let that go.

[00:19:48]And so an inkling of craving arises.

[00:19:52]I want to own that.

[00:19:54]I want to I want to repeat that again. I want to experience that again. So the conceit comes up. The ignorance comes up. The craving will come up. All of the other things may come up.

[00:20:10]And so you repeat the process again.

[00:20:14]Rinse and repeat until the other uh what we call feathers start to drop start to weaken and drop.

[00:20:26]So now this vimuti this dropping of the mind into the total sensation of perception and feeling is dependent upon something known as dispassion.

[00:20:39]In Pali this is called v Raa.

[00:20:43]Here vimi is the vimti. It's the specialized moa, the specialized freedom. But here raa is in vaa. Raa is translated as passion. So viraa doesn't mean it's a specialized passion. Viraa means it's a divided it's it's without passion.

[00:21:07]You know when we say vignyana. So the prefix V depends on the context. Vinyana can mean divided consciousness. Vimi means the specialized u uh freedom. And viraa means the lack of passion. The lack of passion means dispassion.

[00:21:27]What do we mean by dispassion?

[00:21:30]You see, when you're in those highly refined states of neither perception or non-perception and quiet mind and so on, there comes a point when you get tired of looking at all of that stuff. That's the disenchantment. We'll get into it.

[00:21:45]And there comes a point that you don't really care anymore whether you get nibbano or not. You are content enough to be there wherever it is that you are.

[00:21:54]And whatever comes into the mind, your mind is like non-stick.

[00:22:01]It just slides. The mind doesn't hold on to anything. That's the dispassion.

[00:22:08]This dispassion is dependent on something known as disenchantment.

[00:22:15]Nibida.

[00:22:17]Nibida sometimes is translated as revulsion.

[00:22:22]Going back to the chocolate cake example, you know, if I'm given one piece of chocolate cake, it's beautiful. It's wonderful. If I'm given a second piece of chocolate cake, that's my greed taking over and saying, "Yeah, I'll have more." If I get a third, there's a little bit of hesitation, but my greed is too much. I will take that third piece. By the fourth piece, I get sick and I say, "I want no more." The very thing that caused me pleasure now causes me displeasure.

[00:22:56]You see many times when we as teachers and guides will tell the student and the practitioner sit for a little little while longer and they'll say but nothing is happening in the mind. Nothing's going on.

[00:23:11]No, but sit a little longer. Yeah, but my mind is like coming up with all sorts of stories and there's stuff going on.

[00:23:19]there's an itch on my nose and you know my back is going like this and I I don't know what to do and sit longer because your mind needs the capacity to experience all of that over and over until it gets sick and tired of it and says you know what come what come may I will sit here I don't give you know uh about what happens I don't care what happens.

[00:23:56]I'm just going to sit. No matter what's coming up, my mind becomes completely disenchanted from it.

[00:24:03]It's like, okay, it's fine. Whatever it is, I'm tired of it. I'm not going to I'm not going to fight again. I'm not going to force myself to do something anymore. I'm going to give up.

[00:24:13]Give up what? give up my desire for anything.

[00:24:18]No longer being enchanted by well, I think I saw a past life in this neither perception or non-perception. I want to go and pursue it. I want to see what that's all about. Well, I saw this thing that's happening. I just want to see where it might take me. Oh, I saw some light coming in from this side. I want to see what happens if I see the light.

[00:24:39]you know I saw uh just complete you know nothingness and I just want to know what is behind that right you get tired of that because you realize it's a fool's errand it's a fool's errand but we as guides and teachers have to have the patience to be like well they will learn on their own no matter how much we tell them don't do it they have to see for themselves elves and one day they'll come back and they'll say, "Yeah, you were right. I just gave up, right?" And a couple days later they experience nibbana.

[00:25:20]But the desire for nibbana, the being in the waiting room, that's lack of dispassion, that's lack of disenchantment. The mind is still enchanted.

[00:25:34]So how do you bring or cultivate that disenchantment? Remember what I told you a few days ago. When the mind is subdued by all of these things that are happening in neither perception or non-perception or when it feels like you're still having that waiting room craving for nibbana, what do you do?

[00:25:53]Take a step back. Go back to radiating equinimity.

[00:26:00]Go back to radiating equinimity. Because this disenchantment is dependent upon something known as the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are which is from the pi yata buddha nana dasanam. Yata buddha is things as they are. Nana is knowledge. Dasanam is vision. This is synonymous with equinimity with upka because there is no expectation of how things should be. you ex you're accepting everything as it actually is.

[00:26:35]There's no desire to move things around.

[00:26:37]There's no desire to push or pull or make adjustments. You are in total acceptance mode when you are in equinimity. You're just radiating equinimity for the sake of radiating equinimity.

[00:26:52]And when you are radiating equinimity in this way, whatever comes up, your mind remains balanced.

[00:27:02]And eventually that balance changes to disenchantment. From that disenchantment, the mind becomes non-stick. It becomes dispassionate.

[00:27:13]And then before you know it, be when you least expect it. And see when I say this to you guys, when you least expect it, therein is the instruction, no expectations.

[00:27:27]Your least means zero. When you least expect it, you've got sessation.

[00:27:35]Your mind just drops and it has vimi.

[00:27:43]So this knowledge and vision of things as they actually are this yata budda nana dasum what is that dependent upon what is that conditioned by well you'll see it it says samadi collectedness evenmindedness a mind that is collected here we are in the territory of janna We are in the territory of being in the purity of mindfulness due to equinimity namely the fourth Janna.

[00:28:25]As your mind gets that collected, as your mind gets that composed, then it's able to have the insight to see things as they actually are. The knowledge and vision of things as they actually are.

[00:28:40]We talk about the seven enlightenment factors, right? The mindfulness leads to investigation of states. Investigation of states leads to the energy. Energy leads to the joy. Joy leads to the tranquility. Tranquility leads to collectiveness. Collectedness leads to equinimity.

[00:28:58]So you need the collectiveness in order to have the knowledge and vision of things as they actually are.

[00:29:06]What is this collectiveness dependent upon?

[00:29:09]What is this samadei dependent upon?

[00:29:13]Suka.

[00:29:16]Suka, not the fat cat that's roaming around and you know lying down everywhere.

[00:29:24]Suka.

[00:29:26]Suka is ease. It's comfort. It's happiness in the body and in the mind.

[00:29:36]There is no point really if you want to progress on the path to make it so gung-ho and I will sit here and I will meditate and I will get nibbana.

[00:29:50]People will often quote well the bodhic satwa did that didn't he? He said may my you know what did he say? May my skin dry up and muscles and whatever it is, my senus dry up and may I be here and I will attain nibbana.

[00:30:06]Well, do what he did and then get to that point six years of aesthetic practices. You don't need to do all that beyond the six years to be a bodhic sattva to go through eons and eons of suffering to go through eons and eons of cultivating the paramies the perfections to cultivating how to be compassionate how to be loving and kind to be engaging in truth all the time.

[00:30:37]To be engaging in harmlessness, no harm all the time.

[00:30:45]Do that for eons. Then you can come and say I will sit here until I attain nibbana.

[00:30:56]If you haven't done that then the way for you is to relax.

[00:31:04]And obviously the bodhic satwa himself understood this. Even though he had that composure, even though he had that determination that may I sit here until I attain nibbana, he took the practice to heart. He saw that this is the actual progress to nibbana. This is the actual way towards nibbana.

[00:31:27]that if I tranquilize bodily formations and I tranquilize mental formations, this is what happens. My body is at ease.

[00:31:39]When my body is at ease, my mind is uplifted. When my mind is uplifted, my mind becomes collected.

[00:31:50]So through this ease, one's mind is collected. Through that collectedness, one is able to see things as they are.

[00:31:58]Has equinimity. Through that equinimity, one experiences disenchantment.

[00:32:03]From that disenchantment, the mind is dispassionate. Through dispassion and non-clinging, the mind drops into freedom.

[00:32:12]And there's the knowledge of that freedom.

[00:32:17]So what is this happiness, this ease dependent upon? What is it conditioned by?

[00:32:25]It is conditioned by tranquility. Padi.

[00:32:31]So when you see the six Rs, it's not some arbitrary modernistic interpretation of the four right efforts.

[00:32:41]It comes exactly from this padi.

[00:32:45]Vasamaya is the verb that you see in the anapana sati suta that you see in the um satipatana suta pambaya he tranquilizes he relaxes he lets go you don't like the six hours use drops don't resist or push soften and smile soften soften your engagement with the hindrance. Soften the hindrance. Soften into the object of meditation.

[00:33:23]Tranquilize.

[00:33:26]You see that gives a different flavor than I'm going to sit and meditate.

[00:33:32]I have done that myself. If I have just sat focused on the third eye and just chanted m in the third eye and just been like completely focused and I would do it until I didn't know how much time passed. You see I lived in San Diego for 6 years and for most of those 6 years I had a lot of free time on my hands because of my work schedule. So all that time I was just exploring meditation all kinds of meditation before I got to got to tw and in that process I would uh go through the yoga sutras and practice each and every single uh object of meditation that's mentioned in the yoga sutras and then when I got to where it says you know the the stilling of consciousness is happening through the brahaviharas When one cultivates loving kindness, when one cultivates compassion, when one cultivates empathetic joy, when one cultivates equinimity, his mind becomes still. This is what the yoga sutras says. And I wanted to know how does one do that? So what did I do? I searched for the Bhmavi viharas.

[00:34:46]And who comes up? Bonte Vami.

[00:34:51]And so I look at some of his videos and there is one audio that made me go like I have to do a retreat.

[00:34:58]It was the audio on nibbana where he talks about how nibbana is relief.

[00:35:05]What a beautiful word that is relief.

[00:35:11]Relief from all this this mire of desires and wants. this relief from you know am I good enough?

[00:35:21]This relief from uh craving, this relief from the desire to be someone, the desire to not be someone, the desire to obtain, the desire to possess, you know, relief from clinging, relief from thought itself, relief from all experience.

[00:35:51]So this padi this tranquility why am I talking about that? Because when I did the practice of just focusing here and then just focusing on the breath, focusing on just the vibrations of M in this particular chakra just so tight that time froze. I didn't know what time it was. It would I would start in the morning and it would be dark in my room. No idea how long it's been.

[00:36:26]I open my eyes and there's this darkness because I've just been meditating all day long.

[00:36:31]And then I'm getting off from the chair, getting up from the chair, and opening the door. And there's a light everywhere. And I'm just wondering where I am, what's going on.

[00:36:45]That level of focus, that level of trying so hard.

[00:36:53]It's a surprise how my mind didn't break because I would do that over and over and over.

[00:37:01]I experienced a lot of bliss. I feel like I'd be floating around. I had no idea what was on my plate while I was eating dinner cuz I was in so much bliss.

[00:37:12]But what is the point of that?

[00:37:15]What's the point of that?

[00:37:18]You know, people equate awakening with oh ananda amazing bliss.

[00:37:26]That is the side benefit.

[00:37:30]of actual true awakening the re the awakening to the reality as it actually is.

[00:37:41]And bliss is unsustainable by the way.

[00:37:43]Bliss is you know after a while that bliss starts to flitter away and you are just it's it is like being in the brahalloca and then dropping right back down to earth and so much pain in that to be in so much bliss and then suddenly you're back you know on this planet and back to the suffering no insight no wisdom developed or cultivated because of super concentration That's not the way.

[00:38:17]It will take you nowhere. You want the bliss, you want to just be addicted to the bliss, go right ahead.

[00:38:24]But you're not going to get any brownie points of awakening.

[00:38:32]So tranquility is the center point of this whole practice to relax to soften to disengage.

[00:38:46]So what is this padi this tranquility dependent upon?

[00:38:51]Interesting. This tranquility is dependent upon joy on pe because when your mind is joyful you are relaxed. When you are relaxed your mind cultivates joy. There is this this feedback loop system that happens. You see even when you think about the enlightenment factors the mindfulness leads to the investigation of states.

[00:39:17]The investigation of states leads to the balance in energy. The balance in energy leads to joy. Joy leads to tranquility.

[00:39:26]When we do the six hours, what are we doing?

[00:39:30]We recognize that's the mindfulness and we have investigation of states. We have discernment. My mind is no longer on its object. It's with the hindrance. We release that. We're balancing our the energy of our attention. When we release that, we relax. We tranquilize tranquility. Then what do we do? We bring up the smile. What is that? Joy.

[00:39:55]Joy leads to tranquility. Tranquility leads to joy.

[00:40:03]This is the joy you may experience as a result of letting go of the hindrances.

[00:40:10]In fact, this is what is said in the first Janna. He experiences pi due to seclusion. Joy due to seclusion. What does it mean to be in seclusion?

[00:40:21]Here when we're saying seclusion, it means that the mind is withdrawn from the world for the most part and fully withdrawn from the hindrances.

[00:40:37]And for that reason, you feel relief.

[00:40:41]You're no longer in debt. You are you have found the oasis in the middle of the desert. You have found an escape from the hindrances.

[00:40:53]You have experienced freedom from the prison of the hindrances. And for that reason you experience joy. And when your joy your mind mind is joyful you experience tranquility of formations, tranquility of the body. And when your mind and body experience joy and tranquility, it is at ease. Both of them are at ease. And the mind naturally gets collected. From that collectedness, you can see things as they are. And your mind is disenchanted, dispassionate, and obtains freedom.

[00:41:36]What is this joy dependent upon?

[00:41:40]This joy is dependent upon pamoa, gladness.

[00:41:46]That's the relief.

[00:41:48]The mundane relief of letting go of the hindrances. The mundane relief in the security of having taken refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sana. the relief in the security of having taken the precepts.

[00:42:12]This is the gladness of the dharma.

[00:42:19]So everything in this retreat has been engineered and structur structured in such a way that you experience all of these things under the hood.

[00:42:32]But you must tap into it. You must see it. You must recognize it.

[00:42:40]So this gladness, this pomoa is dependent upon what? It's called sudha, faith.

[00:42:49]But it's not the faith where you accept the Buddha as your Lord and Savior.

[00:42:55]It's the faith that is the confidence, the openmindedness to come and see for yourself. How does this practice work?

[00:43:09]The intention to come here every morning and take refuge in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sana. The intention to come here every morning. If you can't come in the morning, but you're doing it in your cabin, that's fine, too. But the intention to do that is the confidence.

[00:43:26]That confidence as you progress through this whole process comes back to experiential confidence as a stream enter that indeed this is the path to awakening. Indeed, it is an impersonal process that indeed any rights and rituals are nice for uplifting the mind, but they are not going to take me to full awakening. It is by my own self-effort of letting go and seeing with wisdom that will lead to full awakening. So this process that you see it happens over and over and over until you have let go of all the feathers and become fully awakened.

[00:44:16]But this confidence is dependent upon something.

[00:44:21]It is dependent upon suffering.

[00:44:28]If you have not suffered enough, why will you seek out anything?

[00:44:35]There are see in the sutas it says there are two paths from suffering.

[00:44:41]Here one goes into further confusion.

[00:44:44]one indulges in further sensual pleasures, drugs and sex and anything else that helps fill that void of suffering that numbs the pain.

[00:45:02]Right? overindulging in over consuming to numb the pain.

[00:45:14]I want to make it clear sex is not a bad thing in Buddhism.

[00:45:18]It's only for the monks that they are to remain celibate.

[00:45:23]So when you've taken the precepts here about that it's to remain celibate while celibate while you're in retreat. You have been practicing in some sense like monks like junior monks.

[00:45:37]So when you get off of retreat that doesn't mean you continue to be celibate unless you choose to. That's your choice. But here when we talk about this sex is not a bad thing. It's the sexual misconduct.

[00:45:52]sexual misconduct, but doing things that lead to that sexual misconduct, thinking that that will fill the void, indulging in things that numb the pain, right? We think that will lead to the end of suffering initially.

[00:46:14]Or we go and do something else. We just do many random things. There is a search for the end of suffering. But we indulge in these things that lead to further confusion. And eventually at some point it comes to where we search for the dharma. Maybe we have heard from someone about you know there is a practice that you can do that leads to the end of suffering.

[00:46:39]I gave you my example of where I was doing these different practices and then I went and saw that line about the Brahma vihar. Had I not seen that line, I would have not searched for the Brahma viharas. And had I not searched for the brahma viharas, I would not come across seeing a video of bante. I would not come across hearing that audio on Ibana. I would have not been inspired to do an online retreat with David.

[00:47:09]I would have not been inspired when David came to visit his friends in San Diego where I was living to say, "Hey, you know, Bonte is going to be in the vicinity during Easter. You should come and see him." That would not have happened. I wouldn't have had that wonderful conversation with Bonte. He would have not said, "Maybe you should start looking into teaching."

[00:47:33]And of course, I didn't. I was just doing little bit of teaching but it wasn't until 2020 towards the end of 2020 that I actually seriously took up the idea that maybe I could actually teach this thing.

[00:47:49]So you see how life unfolds the causes and conditions that take you towards a path to the end of suffering.

[00:48:00]Life is magical that way.

[00:48:05]You must see this magic in your own life.

[00:48:11]You see, when we say causality and conditionality, it's not about just the causality and conditionality that leads to suffering. It's also the causality and conditionality that led you to transcendent joy, that led you to experiencing Janna, that led you to experiencing nibbana.

[00:48:34]And of course we know suffering is dependent upon the other things that we as we said in in in reference to the links of dependent origination. But you do this practice of rinse and repeat continuously in no time you will experience the fruits of the practice. But you must be consistent.

[00:48:56]You must be dedicated.

[00:49:01]I was beyond dedicated. I was obsessed and obsessed in a good way.

[00:49:07]There was cessation.

[00:49:16]So you know have that have have that chunda that wholesome intent that wholesome inclination but actually do the practice practice apply the practice and I'm not talking about just meditating I'm not talking about just okay I'm going to sit for an hour every day to practice I'm talking about keeping the five precepts keeping the sila Using the six Rs in difficult situations, learning how to apply to the best of your ability loving kindness and compassion or joy or equinimity as per the situation.

[00:49:59]You will fail. We all fail and that's okay.

[00:50:04]You mess up. Oh, I forgot to 6R. Oh, my mindfulness wasn't as great. Fine.

[00:50:12]Do better next time. That's it.

[00:50:15]Commit to doing better next time. Don't beat yourself up.

[00:50:22]See where you went wrong and rectify and continue the practice. Do it in this way. Cultivate wisdom by what? By seeing in every moment. There is only the seen.

[00:50:34]There's only the heard. There's only the sense. There's only the cognized.

[00:50:40]There is the uh guided practice of the five aggregates that's up on the channel. You practice that sometimes.

[00:50:50]You have a ton of resources now. There's books out there in the back. There's u whole library on the website Damasuka website. There's hundreds I guess now thousand at least maybe talks you know in terms of the collection of talks on my channel on the Damasuka channel many many many talks of bante some audio recordings that might be available on the website as well there's so many resources that you guys have but I will say this in the words of one of my teachers from another tradition An ounce of practice is equal to to a ton of philosophy, right? It's okay to read. It's okay to uh look at videos and all of this, but practice six are take away the things uh and situations that don't allow your mind to be collected.

[00:52:01]as best as possible.

[00:52:04]Cultivate mindfulness in everything that you do.

[00:52:09]Cultivate awareness in every action that you take.

[00:52:15]Now, tomorrow you will all be free from retreat.

[00:52:22]You'll be going back to the real world.

[00:52:26]And there will be an complete assault on the senses compared to where you are here in Damasuka.

[00:52:37]The real training ground by the way is India.

[00:52:46]And notice how your mind is in every moment as you're driving back into, you know, St. Louis, as you're doing this, as you're getting to the airport, as you're checking in, where is your mind?

[00:52:57]How does your mind feel? Where is the loving kindness? Where is the equinimity?

[00:53:05]You know, don't be the type of person who says, you know what, I'm I'm not going to take the precepts now. I'm not going to meditate. I'll come back next year and we'll see what happens. Right?

[00:53:18]Don't come back next year. If you're not going to practice consistently, if you're not going to practice sila, what's the point of you coming here?

[00:53:28]This is this might help you for those 10 days to kind of restart the process, but unless you actually consistently practice, you're not going to make any progress.

[00:53:45]So I want to just um end with this suta where it says here. So I'll just read it and just follow along and see how this whole process starts. It says thus monks ignorance is the supporting condition for formations. Formations are the supporting condition for consciousness.

[00:54:07]Consciousness is the supporting condition for mental mentality materiality. Mentality materiality is a supporting condition for the six-fold sense base. The six-fold sense base is a supporting condition for contact.

[00:54:22]Contact is a supporting condition for feeling. Feeling is a supporting condition for craving. Craving is a supporting condition for clinging.

[00:54:32]Clinging is a supporting condition for habitual tendencies. Habitual tendencies are the supporting condition for birth.

[00:54:41]Birth is a supporting condition for suffering. Suffering is a supporting condition for faith. Faith is a supporting condition for gladness.

[00:54:51]Gladness is a supporting condition for joy. Joy is a supporting condition for tranquility. Tranquility is a supporting condition for happiness or ease.

[00:55:02]Happiness or ease is a supporting condition for collectedness.

[00:55:06]Collectedness is a supporting condition for the knowledge and vision of things as they really are. The knowledge and vision of things as they really are is a supporting condition for disenchantment.

[00:55:19]Disenchantment is a supporting condition for dispassion. Dispassion is a supporting condition for liberation.

[00:55:28]Liberation is a supporting condition for the knowledge of the destruction of the taints or the cankers or the viruses.

[00:55:35]Now here is the most important part here. Just as monks when rain descends heavily upon mountaintop the water flows down along with the slope and fills the cliffs, gullies and creeks. These being filled up filled fill up the pools.

[00:55:54]These being filled fill up the ponds.

[00:55:57]These being filled fill up the streams.

[00:56:00]These being filled fill up the rivers.

[00:56:02]And the rivers being filled fill up the great ocean.

[00:56:07]You see how naturally progressive this practice is? You do one thing and you consistently do that. Everything else will follow just as the water goes down the slopes and fills up to the river and enters into the great ocean.

[00:56:25]So make that commitment.

[00:56:30]The rest is up to you.